This invention relates to a disk player such as a compact-disk player which includes a disk tray to be reciprocally moved between its inwardly retracted position and its outwardly projected position with a disk received thereon, and more particularly to a disk setting mechanism thereof.
Conventionally, such a disk player has been proposed as illustrated in FIG. 12, which includes a disk tray 3 to be reciprocally moved between its inwardly retracted position and its outwardly projected position with a disk D received thereon in order to facilitate loading and unloading the disk player 1 with the disk D. With the disk player thus constructed, sticking of the disk to an information reader section is prevented, and the overall height of the device is reduced due to elimination of a disk cover required in other types thereof.
In setting the disk D at its play position, with the above constructed disk player the disk tray 3 is first fed to its outwardly projected position and the disk D is placed on a disk receiving seat 3a of the disk tray 3. The disk tray 3 is then horizontally drawn into the disk player 1 toward its inwardly retracted position, where the disk tray 3 is then moved down in a vertical direction to seat the disk D on a turntable, which is, not shown. To the contrary, when the disk D is to be taken out from the disk player 1, the disk tray 3 is first moved up in the vertical direction and then fed in the horizontal direction from its retracted position to its projected position.
However, in the above constructed disk player, when the disk tray 3 is at its outwardly projected position, it extends horizontally from the disk player 1 and hence it sometimes becomes difficult for an operator to observe the disk receiving seat 3a of the disk tray 3. In such a case, the operator may have to look into the disk tray 3 in order to place the disk D onto the disk receiving seat 3a, which makes it inconvenient to place the disk D onto, and take it out from the disk tray 3.
Further, the disk setting mechanism of the above constructed disk player comprises a horizontal feeding mechanism for reciprocally transferring the disk tray 3 in a horizontal direction between its inwardly retracted position and its outwardly projected position, and an additional lifting mechanism for shifting the disk tray 3 between its lifted position and its lowered position at its inwardly retracted position. This makes the disk setting mechanism complicated in construction and hence it becomes difficult to reduce the overall size and height of the disk setting mechanism, and, therefore of the disk player itself.